Malaysia. Trafficking death penalty commuted

Lim Hock Boon, 40, escaped the gallows for allegedly trafficking in about a kilogram of cannabis because others had access to a car where the drugs were hidden. Court of Appeal judge Datuk Gopal Sri Ram, in setting aside the decision of the High Court, said there had been serious miss-directions of law by the trial judge. He said the court viewed the conviction as unsafe and unsatisfactory. "This is a case of trafficking or nothing," he said of the unanimous decision. Hock Boon had been sentenced to death by the High Court in Shah Alam in 2004 for trafficking in the cannabis at a petrol kiosk in Jalan Batu 3 Lama, Klang, at about 3 am on January 28, 2000.